Instead of inviting another cabinet official or senator to last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit by bringing Betty White, Morgan Freeman and comedian Chelsea Handler. Needless to say, they were the life of the party (especially when Chelsea prodded Morgan to give Betty a big kiss on the mouth). Chelsea is the ultimate jokester, and her fans eat it up. Her show, Chelsea Lately, is consistently the highest rated on E!, her three memoirs are New York Times best-sellers, her live shows sell out. She’s that unique combination of bawdy and vulnerable, saying the things most of us would never dare to. With her new show, After Lately, premiering in the spring, she was clearly psyched to talk about this exciting time in her career. As always, I was struck by her no-holds-barred honesty, her generous spirit and her underlying sweetness. And, of course, she can always be counted on for a good belly laugh!

KATIE COURIC: Were you funny as a kid?

CHELSEA HANDLER: Well, as a child, I didn’t necessarily know if I was funny or not. I sure thought I was, and my family was really funny, so together nobody really stood out as being particularly funny because we all just kind of got a kick out of each other. And I got in trouble in school a lot, so whatever I thought was funny wasn’t being interpreted that way at school. And that’s when I was like, Wow, maybe I’m just really annoying.

KATIE COURIC: I saw that your brother took you to parties when you were seven, and everybody would gather around you, and you’d start insulting people by saying things like, “You’re never going to get a date,” or “You’re a jerk,” or stuff like that. A lot of your humor was kind of insulting, right?

CHELSEA HANDLER: That’s how I got attention, when I stood up and wouldn’t let anybody tell me to sit down. That was how people started to pay attention. Because when you’re the youngest of six kids, you want the attention. You want all of it. And then my brother died, and my whole family was just so enveloped in that, I was kind of left in the dust. Those years, from nine to about 16 or 17, were pretty difficult because I was really struggling to be heard. I definitely had some anger issues, and I was very rebellious and had very little respect for anything or anybody.

KATIE COURIC: But now you’re all very close. Your brother lives with you, and he’s your chef.

CHELSEA HANDLER: We have a very fun household, because I have my two lesbian friends who live in the guesthouse, and then my brother lives with us, and then my trainer, Pilates Tina, lives with us too. I grew up with such a big family that if I went and bought a big house and I had to live there by myself, I would be so depressed. I just like having people coming in and out.

KATIE COURIC: I’m the same way. You were once quoted saying, “I’m kind of a guy, but I like the crusade of a girl.” What did you mean by that?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I’m not a typical girl in the sense that I’m dying to get married or dying to procreate. I don’t really have those desires. I respect them, but I do feel like more of a guy in that way. And I don’t like to be tied down to one person. I don’t like long-term commitments. But I like the “crusade of a girl,” because I like what it says about women. I like to be able to do things my way and create a new path for myself that’s not based on what anybody else did before me.

KATIE COURIC: And to be a role breaker?

CHELSEA HANDLER: Yeah, and break roles, and not take life so seriously and not have everything be so dramatic. Somebody can get you down or you can fall down, but you gotta pick yourself up and you gotta laugh about it, and you just gotta keep going because it’s not that serious. And I think the people in your life are the people that—when you can make other people happy and you can give things to your family and your friends, you know, that’s really obviously what life is all about. But it doesn’t have to be children. It doesn’t have to be a husband. It can be whatever you make it.

KATIE COURIC: Why aren’t there more women like you in late-night comedy?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I think the whole landscape is changing. Look at you, doing the evening news. That wasn’t happening a couple years ago. It’s the same for late-night hosts, and it will happen. I hope that I’m not the only one. I want there to be more women doing the same thing.

KATIE COURIC: Would you want to take over for Leno or Letterman?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I definitely want to move on and do something bigger, expand my horizons. Talking about celebrity every day can just fry your brain. I want to be able to talk about politics, I want to be able to talk about sports, I want to be able to talk about life paths, not just celebrity driven. When my contract’s up at E!, I’m going to figure out all the options and see if anybody still wants to give me a job.

KATIE COURIC: Your humor can be pretty out there. Do you self-edit?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I’m pretty clear about what I’m willing to say and the lengths I’m willing to go, and I think it’s important to be politically incorrect. You don’t want to be nasty, and you don’t want to be malicious. But it’s OK—I mean, funny trumps everything in my mind.

KATIE COURIC: Do you ever have second thoughts about being raunchy?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I don’t like the word raunchy. I’m irreverent and I say things that a lot of people wouldn’t say, and some of it probably isn’t in the best taste. But when I hear the word raunchy, to me that describes Jenna Jameson. Look, I’m never going to please everybody. So I just have to be true to myself and think, OK, this is something I’d say in my living room, so it’s OK to say on the show. Because I want my audience to truly know who I am.

KATIE COURIC: What do you say to that Christopher Hitchens essay, arguing that women aren’t funny?

CHELSEA HANDLER: It just seems like an archaic thing to say. A really stupid thing to say.

KATIE COURIC: Di from Phoenix wants to know—what women do you admire, funny or not?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I admire a lot of my friends, the people I’ve gotten to work with. There are women like Gloria Steinem, who have done amazing things for us. But I admire more the people in my personal life whom I get to meet and spend time with than I do the people whom I don’t know.

KATIE COURIC: Is there anybody who really makes you laugh? A woman who really makes you laugh, other than me?

KATIE COURIC: And speaking of that, wow, girl, you went off on Angelina Jolie recently.

CHELSEA HANDLER: Yeah, I’m not a fan. She just doesn’t come off to me as a sincere woman. She seems like a woman that you’d really want to avoid.

KATIE COURIC: Cioccoloco1 wants to know, “Is there any topic that makes you uncomfortable? Are there any subjects that are over the line for you? Do you even have a line?”

CHELSEA HANDLER: I think talking about children and their looks is not nice. Like, unattractive children. I don’t do that. And I don’t talk about people who are dying. I think that’s inappropriate.

KATIE COURIC: In your comedy you talk a lot about promiscuity and drinking. Do you worry about the message you’re sending to young women?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I drink responsibly. I drink two or three times a week, and I never drink and drive. People confuse the fact that I discuss drinking openly with the idea that I’m a heavy drinker. I don’t want girls at my show wasted, screaming and yelling out and vomiting.

KATIE COURIC: That would start to smell very unpleasant.

CHELSEA HANDLER: Believe me, it’s happened. In regard to promiscuity, in my book I actually have sex with a total of eight guys in the entire thing. But the fact that I discussed it at all led people to believe that I was some big trollop. I think it’s OK—that’s what your twenties are for. Now that I’m in my thirties, that’s over. If there’s a message that I can’t say loud enough, it’s that it’s OK to be who you are. I don’t want to be one of those girls who is like, “Oh, I didn’t do that. I’m not like that.” Because those girls make girls like me feel bad about ourselves. And we should be bringing each other up, not putting each other down.

KATIE COURIC: What’s your take on bullying?

CHELSEA HANDLER: I think bullying of anybody, whether they’re gay or straight or anything in high school is unbearable. I dealt with it, and I did it. It’s terrible. And you want the school to tell people that at some point you all grow up, and it was a terrible thing to do, and be a reminder of it’s never acceptable. I was tortured for a year in school by the older girls. They didn’t like the way I looked; I dated a guy that was a senior when I was a freshman. And it was awful. But I think bullies just need to be taught by their parents how to treat other people.

KATIE COURIC: Tell me a little bit about your new show.

CHELSEA HANDLER: This is a show that just got picked up by E!. This is a show that Borderline Amazing, which is my production company, produced. And it’s basically like Chelsea Lately, but after the show. And it’s unscripted, it’s very tongue-in-cheek, and it’s all about what goes on behind the scenes of our show. We have an outline for each episode, and then we just go in and improvise. There’s a lot of funny s—t that goes on in our office.

KATIE COURIC: Sounds like fun to do.

CHELSEA HANDLER: We’ve had a blast. And we’re developing my other book, Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, for TV. Then my book in print starts next year, too, Borderline Amazing books. And the first book out of the gate is going to be next spring, which is going to be called Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me.

KATIE COURIC: You’re a cottage industry, woman!

CHELSEA HANDLER: I know.

KATIE COURIC: What’s happening on the BF front?

CHELSEA HANDLER: Boyfriend?

KATIE COURIC: Yes, that would be boyfriend.

CHELSEA HANDLER: There’s none worth mentioning at this point.

KATIE COURIC: Do you want a boyfriend?

CHELSEA HANDLER: Yeah. I like dating. I love men. I’m not opposed to having a boyfriend, but I’m away a lot, so it’s really hard to find the time. When I go home, I like to hang out with my brother and the lesbians.

KATIE COURIC: Glacerie wants to know, “What’s happening with you and 50 Cent?”

CHELSEA HANDLER: He came to my show in New Orleans with 15 people, and they take a photo of us and assume that we’re a couple. But he’s really cute, and I have to be honest, there’s a good chance that I will end up hooking up with a rapper at some point.

KATIE COURIC: JenniB wants to know how you got your amazing work ethic?

CHELSEA HANDLER: Well, first of all, tell JenniB, thank you for noticing. Because I had no idea I could ever, ever work this hard. I was just saying to my sister the other day that I thought I was the laziest person in the world. And she goes, “Do you ever take a day off?” And I’m like, “Oh my God. I am a hard worker.”